Someone on Greg Biffle’s plane texted ‘emergency landing’ moments before crash, NTSB says

FILE – Greg Biffle smiles along pit row during qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012, in Hampton, Ga. (AP Photo/David Tulis, File)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A passenger aboard NASCAR driver Greg Biffle’s plane texted a family member moments before the Cessna 550 jet crashed at Statesville Regional Airport Thursday, National Transportation Safety Board member Michael Graham said Saturday.

“Emergency landing,” read the text, Graham said at a news conference.

He declined to say who sent the text, and to whom, saying the NTSB needed to respect the family’s privacy during the ongoing crash investigation.

“We are not aware of any other communications from passengers to those on the ground,” Graham said.

Biffle died in the plane crash at Statesville Regional Airport Thursday along with his wife, their two children and three others.

“We do not know the circumstances which led the aircraft … to attempt to return to the airport,” Graham said. “That is the focus of our investigation.”

‘Stable on approach’
On Friday, NTSB officials held a news conference providing preliminary information on the crash. Between 10:05 a.m. and 10:15 a.m., the plane left the airport about 45 miles north of Charlotte, returned for an unknown reason and crashed before the runway entrance, Graham said.

The 44-year-old Cessna 550 jet was in the air for about five minutes before it started to return, Investigator-In-Charge Dan Baker said. The jet left Statesville at about 10:05 a.m. It made a left turn toward the west followed by a left turn to the east, which led the aircraft back to the airport.

NTSB investigators “are confident” they know who was piloting the plane “but still need to verify” that through further investigation, Graham said Saturday. The pilot will be named in the preliminary NTSB report on the crash within a month, he said.

“Early indications from multiple sources indicate that the airplane was stable on approach, configured for landing, with the landing lights on, but the aircraft was coming in low,” Graham said.

“That information is consistent with the debris field our team continues to survey, and consistent with the first points of impact on the airport runway lighting stanchion located approximately 1,800 feet from the runway threshold,” he said.

The airplane later hit trees, two other lights and the airport perimeter fence short of the runway before coming to a stop on the runway, Baker said.

In response to a question by The Charlotte Observer, Graham said the plane “was lower than a normal glide slope for the airport. And the fact that it contacted the approach lighting stanchion tells you that it was basically level or below the runway level at that point, because the runway is up on a hill a little bit.”

The Cessna 550 jet was destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire, the FAA said.

Witnesses noted on social media the plane cut a path through a wooded area near the airport, and left a smoking trail carved in the grass before it came to a stop. Graham added that when the plane was returning to the airport, witnesses noted that it returned at a low height.

Cockpit voice recorder, instrument panels recovered
On Friday, an NTSB team “documented the accident debris field, aircraft wreckage positioning, component locations and the flight controls,” Graham said Saturday.

Analysts at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., are examining the cockpit voice recorder recovered Friday, he said.

NTSB teams “also recovered additional avionics equipment, one being the ground proximity warning system, a Garmin G750 display … and various cockpit instruments,” Graham said.

The team secured the caution and warning panel from the instrument panel, he said.

The NTSB has the maintenance logs of the plane, and will try to determine its weight and balance “and verify the loading,” Graham said.

Another team continues to examine the engines of the plane, he said.

The NTSB completed documenting the scene Saturday morning and will release the scene to local authorities Sunday or Monday, Graham said.

NTSB investigators will continue gathering evidence at the site as long as it takes, he said.

A final report on the crash is expected in a year to a year and a half, he said.